[EXTRACT] The gallery is an artist's long-term partner | Marc Benda (Friedman Benda)

Marc Benda (0:00)

The most important thing is quality. You need to show the public that there is a quality of execution, of thought, of you know, that there is something happening that wouldn't otherwise be happening. You know, that is unique, that is outstanding.

Adrien Garcia (0:13)

Can you explain to us what is the role of a gallerist ?

Marc Benda (0:15)

A gallery is essentially a meeting point, in that you have an expertise in the art or the design that you represent, and you are the translator or an amplifier of that to an audience.

Adrien Garcia (0:27)

What brought you to New York ?

Marc Benda (0:30)

To me, from a very young age, New York felt like the center of the universe. There are many centers, but it felt like the center of the universe I belonged to. Nobody even had time for me. I was 21 years old, nobody took me seriously. And the only dealer who took time was Barry Freeman. He sat me down, he looked through the photos, he bought a piece, and said that I should come back with more.

Adrien Garcia (0:49)

Starting a gallery was an objective at some point ?

Marc Benda (0:51)

My vision was a hunger for objects.

Adrien Garcia (0:54)

How do you put a price on something ?

Marc Benda (0:55)

The first time someone asked me that was the person who basically invented the algorithm for Google to price the ads. In design and in art you have a lot of young artists who take certain references. It's a copy and paste of ideas. And a young audience who doesn't even know that they are copy and pasting and that it's a rehash of something instead of pushing forward. Don't worry about PR and marketing and don't worry about that. At the end of the day what matters is the art that you show. Because if what you show is real and important and has a real relevance, then the public will find you.

The role of the gallery is, look, the art world and the gallery world is one of the few remaining businesses in life where you can be, where there's no straight answer, there's no single answer to that. Every gallerist forms their own path. There are certain logics how a business works, and there's a logic to human psychology obviously. But the beauty in this field is that you can really define that for yourself. And I think it's a crucial, it's an essential question obviously. And I can tell you how I see my role. But I don't think that any two gallerists would answer that question in exactly the same way. That's very beautiful actually. And in that you as a collector, you can still choose by personality and by philosophy who you like to work with. And as every artist can make that choice too.

A gallery is essentially a meeting point in that you have an expertise in the art or the design that you represent. And you are a translator or an amplifier of that to an audience. It's in most cases, in our case, very much so a public place. So it's a place where you do exhibit work to the public, which very often is educational, but obviously with the idea that you sell these works. When I work with designers, the idea and one of the first questions always is, what is there you would like to do that you haven't been able to do ? So it's an enabler. It's making sure that you help artists and designers to realize, sometimes even the unrealizable, right ? And that you create a demand for that once it's there.

That is a very broad answer that comes with a lot of sub points, right ? That it's enabling these works to be made. It's sometimes even enabling artists to grow in ways that they wouldn't have on their own. And essentially I see my role as a gallerist and first and foremost a partner to the artist that I represent.

Adrien Garcia (4:20)

Do you put a price on something ?

Marc Benda (4:27)

The first time someone asked me that was the person who basically invented the algorithm for Google to price the ads. Interesting. He wanted to know why he had to pay a certain price. And coming from him, I was very...

That was a challenge. Yeah.

Adrien Garcia (4:50)

What did you tell him ?

Marc Benda (4:51)

I told him that I'm here to represent the artist, but I'm also here to do that for a very long time. And then in the case of that piece where he asked me, it was an edition of 20, it was a coffee table by Joris Larmund that I mentioned before. And I said, look, I can make one table and find the one person who paid an insane price for that, or I can find 50 people who want it, of which 20 will end up buying it at a price that I know, not only that I can sell it to these 20, but that the other 30 would pay that price too. And then I've created a market.